Long Geoffrey Poems

Medieval Poems

How Long the Night
anonymous Middle English lyric, circa early 13th century AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts
with the mild pheasants' song ...
but now I feel the northern...

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Rejection
a roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your beauty from your heart has so erased
Pity, that it's useless to complain;
For Pride now holds your mercy by a chain.

I'm guiltless, yet my sentence has...

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Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain,
they wound me so, through my heart keen.

Unless your words heal me hastily,
my heart's wound will remain...

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Rondels, Roundels and Rondeaux

These are poetic forms similar to villanelles, with refrains (repeated lines) and sometimes double refrains.



Rondel: Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot...

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Winter Awakens My Care
anonymous Middle English poem, circa 1300
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Winter awakens all my care
as leafless trees grow bare.
For now my sighs are fraught
whenever it enters my thought:
regarding this world's joy,
how everything...

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In 1968,
a time of great concern for healthy human civil rights
for and of women as well as LeftBrain culturally dominant men,
Gregory Bateson invited a Symposium
not quite a finished Symphony
proposing Moral and Aesthetic Structure of Human...

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Grey Bane and the Dark Lord


Perched on a stalagmite jutting up from the floor
Hugo was staring at length across the cave
My eyes accustomed to the glow followed his gaze
Frozen in ice was my Love whom...

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Every year our community gets together at the annual church fair. This year they have changed the format with some new events and dropping some of the old events that appeared a little dangerous. How...

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Lament for the Makaris ("Lament for the Makers/Poets")
by William Dunbar [c. 1460-1530]
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
 
i who enjoyed good health and gladness
am overwhelmed now by life’s terrible sickness
and enfeebled with infirmity ...
how the...

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In regards, to the birds and the bees
Depends on who’s watching, what he sees
There are some women, impossible to please
Wise men are wary, to be with one of these

See beneath all that glitter, her cool...

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 Warning, this poem is dark. It is inspired by the  Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Gather around and hear of the strange day,
When three total strangers met on that plane.
Three unlikely females eager to...

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Three Roundels by Geoffrey Chaucer

I. Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
translation by Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain,
they wound me so, through my heart keen.

Unless your words heal me hastily,
my...

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P S IT’S POETRY WRITE ON WRITE ON CONGRATS TO MY FELLOW POETRY SOUPERS PART 9


Many thanks to you selected poets; Of sharing your whispers from God, tho you didn’t know it; Each letters and...

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"Pluto’s Dark Abode" 

they say you can feel her 
walking through you 
it only happens when 
the frost and mist is about 
where hidden wild things 
watch but make 
themselves heard
in the half light 
they...

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At age twenty I had made it to Earls Court.
The rented room was seedily solid
having been for decades
filled with wine and cheap sunlight.

Until then I had not read a thing
apart from: ‘The Ship’ by C.S....

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Time ticked until the stroke of ten
before descending its wrath on men
And at that hour it escaped its cage
Pendulum chiming with total rage

Humans are  in chaos as they await
time to restart. In  its...

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Escape
roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer
translation by Michael R. Burch

Since I’m escaped from Love and yet still fat,
I never plan to be in his prison lean;
Since I am free, I count it not a bean.

He may question...

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We know exercise is activity
done to raise someone's energy, but one
shouldn't exhaust vigor, if physically
it makes her tired, it means there's no more fun,
rather exceeded limit by outdone.
Such outcome likely to spoil health cannot
be called...

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NAME DROPPER

One day I had lunch with the Queen
We ate fresh garden peas round and green
One of mine rolled toward her
Sent back in short order
“No thanks, One don’t know where it’s been”

On that day I...

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The beautiful young woman’s accent was unusual.
Was she Romanian? Ukrainian?
Geoffrey could not place it, but he enjoyed hearing it.
Her soft voice sounded European.

Are you from the other side of the world? He asked her.
She smiled...

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SONNET OF COMIC REDEMPTION
Once when that black ice cloud enclosed me again
Penetrated mind and heart, freezing all aspiration
Taking me below resentment fear or pain
To a hopeless state of dull weary enervation
I heard a voice that...

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~ ...and the yonge sonne, hath in 
      the Ram his halve course y-ronne... ~
               ...

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To you, Geoffrey, congratulation
On your gladdening Graduation
Well-deserved: the standing ovation:
You are ready to serve your nation….

However, I fear, from your bedroom,
As you wait for the right job to loom!
Spurious has been the worshipped oil boom,
A...

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It was a July morning and cardinals were singing
When heaven opened up and angels came to get me awake
I smelled lavender, and saw dew on the grass
When the spiritual realm opened in the far off...

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Geoffrey gave me an exquisite book
For Christmas.
It is a showcase of the work of
Hundert Wasser - the great Viennese artist,
Architect and visionary.
The jewel colours, the gracious curves -
No straight lines here to sicken
Humankind.
The environmentalist obeying
Natural...

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